Jonesboro, AR – JonesboroRightNow.com – At a recent city council meeting, the topic of pedestrian safety was discussed. The discussion came after a fatal pedestrian accident in downtown Jonesboro occurred in early March.
To prevent future pedestrian-related accidents, the city is reviewing plans to improve pedestrian safety, specifically in downtown Jonesboro.
One idea presented at the council meeting was to implement an “all-stop” system at various downtown Jonesboro intersections. In this type of system, when a pedestrian hits a button indicating they want to cross a crosswalk, traffic in all directions at that intersection is stopped.
In the traffic systems currently in place downtown, pedestrians moving east-west go when traffic is moving east-west, and those heading north-south go when traffic is cleared to go north-south.
The city’s Engineering Department began researching the idea in the aftermath of Mike Dickson’s death, the pedestrian who was struck and killed by a vehicle on March 4. In that accident, the driver had made a left turn into the intersection of Main Street and Washington Avenue, and had a green light at the time, according to the Jonesboro Police Department.
“Even though [pedestrians] have the right of way, that doesn’t mean that somebody sees them or that somebody understands that. They just see a green light, and they turn, and you can be in a very bad situation really quickly, regardless of speed,” said Brian Richardson, chief administrative officer for the city. “This concept would eliminate that to where if there was somebody in that crosswalk, there would not be a left-hand green.”
Craig Light, director of engineering, said the department was working on a feasibility study to modify downtown traffic signals. The study, which Light said was in its early stages, would examine how to modify the signals, how traffic patterns could be affected, and the costs of the potential project. The city will be working with Mark Nichols, principal engineer at Traffic Engineering Solutions, on the study.
“The guy that is gonna do it, he’ll set up a model of the downtown, of the traffic signals, and the timing planes that we have, and then we’ll run some scenarios of how it operates, and then we’ll get an idea of what it’s doing,” Light explained.
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Cliff Nash, traffic operations manager with the city, said that while there are not many incidents in which a vehicle strikes a pedestrian, there are frequently near misses, either drivers going too fast or pedestrians not expecting a car to be traveling as fast as it actually is.
The all-stop is just one of many steps the city is taking to improve pedestrian safety. Richardson said the city is applying for grants for additional pedestrian infrastructure, as well as working through final agreements for a grant to install additional lighting on Johnson Avenue, among several other projects.
Richardson added that many city-owned intersections have cameras that can detect when pedestrians are in crosswalks. If the camera detects a pedestrian, it will not allow the traffic lights to turn green until the person has cleared the intersection. Such cameras are in place at other pedestrian-heavy intersections, such as the intersection of Highland and Southwest drives.
Some of the highly trafficked roads in Jonesboro, however, are maintained by the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT). Richardson said that enhancing pedestrian safety on those roads involves the city coordinating with ARDOT.
He noted that ARDOT was looking to install a HAWK light on Melrose Street and had recently completed a pedestrian safety study on Johnson Avenue. HAWK is an abbreviation for High-Intensity Activated CrossWalk and is a beacon used at intersections or mid-block crossings to halt traffic. The beacon is pedestrian-activated.
Both Light and Richardson said implementing new pedestrian safety features is half the battle. The other half is educating drivers on potential traffic pattern changes, traffic laws, and safety.
Richardson said the city will use its social media outlets and public meetings to educate people about any potential changes. However, he said, driver education, especially for teenagers learning to drive, starts at home.
“We would encourage parents again, to not only encourage young drivers, but also encourage young kids on what’s safe and not safe when they’re walking, when they’re riding their bike. It’s a group effort,” Richardson said.
Richardson said there could be a presentation on the study at the next city council meeting, preferably before the next Public Safety Committee meeting.
“We want to keep the public aware of what we’re looking at,” he said. “It’s just good to keep constantly keeping the public informed to some new options that we’re exploring and obviously gather feedback.”
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